Hey guys, I'm here for a friend who has a 2003 Lancer ES auto tranny. Basically yesterday he re-filled his ac with freon because it wasn't blowing cold at all. After he replaced it everything was great until he was driving home last night. Apparently his car began stalling and bucking every time the compressor would kick on. So we looked under the hood earlier today and it looks like everytime the compressor is kicking on it is trying to stall out the, almost like the bearings have gone bad within the pulley.
My question is has anybody else on here had this issue? I have an 09 and am not familiar with this particular issue. If the compressor is going bad how difficult is it to replace, can it be done in the driveway or would you recommend taking it to a mechanic (in other words do you need to pull the front end off to do it?).

Any and all advice would be greatly appreciated guys!

 

Okay, I DO NOT know the solution, but read on haha..

My car did the same EXACT thing literally last week. If he is still driving it around, KEEP the AC OFF! Get it to a mechanic (I did a Tire and Auto) and have a ac/heating eval done. I found out after my car was recharged and making noise when the compressor would kick on, and my car would literally surge while i was driving, forward, back forward,back constantly when the ac would kick on and off. I went through 2 belts on my PS/AC pulleys because of the surging and compressor messing up. I was told at the mechanic that my clutch was not disengaging properly and was actually splintering some what and sending metal shards into the compressor leading to it seizing and breaking the first belt. the second belt was because of someone ac being turned on by accident and not realizing it (windows were down, music on, and not really paying attention to what the passenger was doing) and later that day the belt broke. (basically the pulley wasn't spinning cuz the compressor was seized, so the belt was just spinning over the pulley)

Get it checked, my bill will be like 1k to get the whole ac fixed, I'm looking to just disable the ac till i can get it fixed or have myself fix it. (theres a wire going from the AC to PS and i believe can be just disconnected. The PS is the bottom pulley and AC is top pulley on left side of the engine. but I'm not sure, still checking into this idea)

But all and all, i hope everything works out, maybe this isn't exactly like my problem, but it sure sounds like my symptoms before **** hit the fan... haha, pun, fan, ac problems... yeah.. long day...

 

Thanks for the input but we finally figured out what was wrong. Turns out that the AC hadn't been recharged in months and for some reason it had cause the compressor to conk out on him. So long story short he had to replace the whole compressor. But he won't because its his beater and he would probably spend more on the ac than he paid for the car itself. I think he got quoted something like $800 for the part and labor. He only paid $500 for the car itself lol

 

Yep, it happens, i been checking online and stuff and the service manuals, y'all got a mechanical bone in your body? You can take it apart and check it to see if the clutch is fine and if it was just the compressor. If the compressor is just the ONLY thing thats wrong i would say check junkyards and pull a compressor from any of the 02-06 lancers, they are all the same i believe, and the service manual will tell you how to replace it. I am thinking about doing just that, OEM compressor(always comes with a clutch) from mitsu are $610, but you can find some from other manufactures for a little less and with you installing you can prob do it for cheap, then just get it recharged.

Thats just my input,https://www.evolutionm.net/forums/la...able-here.html thats for the manuals, they are helpful, and might give you an idea of how easy of a install/removal it might even be

 

Hello,

Was there ever a solution to this issue? I have a 2004 lancer oz and i have the exact issue. I recharged with freon, and then with the ac on my idle drops and acts like it is going to die. Only when the ac is on. From research everything pointed to the iac, I replaced it but have the exact same issue.

I see that the ac compressor will spin, then stall, then start to spin again, which is creating my idle issue.

I spoke to a mechanic and he said since the ac compressor is not locked, most likely it is something else.

Any ideas or feedback would be greatly appreciated!!!

 

I tried using one of those self service cans and pretty much over serviced my ac on my Evo. The compressor would come on and immediately shut off causing the cars idle to die down. I ended up releasing some of the r134 out until the compressor would stay on. I've been meaning to take it to an actually AC place to have it serviced.